Duinen 1831 - 1904

Arnoud Schaepkens created this etching, ‘Duinen’ or ‘Dunes’, using ink on paper. Schaepkens was working during a period in the Netherlands where artists began to move away from the city and towards the landscape, often depicting rural scenes with a sense of nostalgia for a simpler way of life. Schaepkens’s choice of the dune landscape offers a place that exists between land and sea, settled and unsettled. The rough, dark lines used to depict the dunes contrast with the open, hazy sky, evoking a sense of the sublime. What does it mean to depict nature in a way that acknowledges its beauty, but also its harshness and indifference? The artwork’s small size invites us to consider the intimate scale of our relationship with nature, prompting us to reflect on our place within it. This landscape doesn’t dictate our reading of it; rather, it creates a space for personal reflection.